antiquesandartireland.com

HERE is a video from Sotheby’s on the Jan Krugier collection.  In the course of the two days 119 works from the Collection met with enormous enthusiasm at Sotheby’s, selling for a combined total of £74.8 million  more than double the pre-sale high estimate. A total of 37 works from the legendary gallerists’ collection brought in a combined total of £53.3 million at the evening sale on February 5.  Pablo Picasso Composition au Minotaure featured on the front of the video sold for £10.4 million, three times its pre-sale estimate.  The sale was 100% sold by lot, with 82.5% of the lots selling for prices above their high estimates and many auction records established.  Alberto Giacometti’s iconic sculpture Homme Traversant Une Place Par Un Matin De Soleil (1951) achieved £8,482,500, Auction records were established for works on paper by Pablo Picasso, Giorgio de Chirico, Alberto Giacometti, Pierre Bonnard, for a print by Pablo Picasso and for a work by Victor Hugo.  The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles emerged as the buyer of Georges Seurat’s Mendiant hindou  for £2,434,500 and  Tête – a 1911 drawing by Pablo Picasso – sold to a UK institution for £626,500.

Camille Pissarro, Boulevard Montmartre, Matinee de Printemps sold for £19.9 million – almost 5 times previous record.

Van Gogh’s L’Homme est en mer sold for £16.9 million.

A £19.9 million Pissarro,  the highest price for a Van Gogh at auction in London for 25 years and the sale of every masterpiece from the Jan Krugier collection for prices above the top estimate added up to a soaring evening at Sotheby’s.  Records tumbled at the Impressionist and Modern Art sale on February 5.  Camille Pissarro’s Boulevard Montmartre, Matinee de Printemps, a restituted masterpiece sold for five times the previous record for the artist.    Meantime seven bidders competed for Van Gogh’s L’Homme est en mer, which was eventually knocked down for £16.9 million.  The collection of legendary gallerist Jan Krugier brought in a combined total of £53.3 million.  The sale saw  record prices for a print by Picasso, a work on paper by Giacometti and a work on paper by Bonnard. 

The sale realised £163,461,500.  (See post on antiquesandartireland.com for Monday, December 23, 2013).

Juan Gris Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2014.

A still life by Juan Gris (1887-1927) was the top lot at a hugely successful sale at Christie’s  in London tonight.  Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux, 1915, by Juan Gris (1887-1927) sold for £34,802,500. This was a new world record price for the artist at auction.  It had been estimated at £12-18 million. The Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale and the auction of The Art of the Surreal  realised a combined total of £176,986,000 selling 86% by lot and 95% by value. The auctions had a combined pre-sale estimate of £113.3 million to £162.9 million.  In total, 35 works of art sold for over £1 million / 43 for over $1 million, and four artist records were set. As well as Juan Gris there were records for works Carlo Carrà, Le Corbusier and Dorothea Tanning.

Jay Vincze, International Director and Head of The Impressionist and Modern Art Department, Christie’s London: “We are thrilled with tonight?s results, which represent the highest total for a sale held in London in any category. We were particularly pleased with the result of the private Swiss collection which more than doubled its pre-sale estimate with every work sold, and three new world records established. The energy of the sale and the depth of bidding was exceptional, particularly on the top lots, underpinned by both the quality of the works on offer and the global nature of both new and established buyers and bidders.”

Christie’s withdrew a collection of paintings, drawing, sculptures and collages by Miro consigned by the Portuguese Republic because of a legal dispute.

(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for January 7, January 14 and January 15 2014).

About 50 works by Jean-Michel Basquiat including murals from the East Village apartment he shared in 1979-80 will be sold by Christie’s in New York in March.    Before the artist could afford studios and canvases the artist painted all over his apartment.  In 1979 he began transforming the apartment where he cohabited with Alexis Adler.  These works will feature in an upcoming exhibition and sales.  Three major works, Olive Oyl, Famous Negro Athletes and Milk, will highlight the sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie’s on March 6.  A selection of 41 works and items will be sold through a dedicated online only sale from March 3-17.  An exhibition including never before published archive photographs from the collection of Alexis Adler takes place from March 1-28 on the 20th floor at Rockefeller Center.

Demand for work by Basquiat, who died in 1988 of a heroin overdose at just 27, has grown.  Last year his Dustheads made $48.8 million at Christies.

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1960-1988)
Olive Oyl
paint on wall ($400,000-600,000).
© Alexis Adler. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2014.

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1960-1988)
Untitled (Famous Negro Athletes)
paint on door (Detail) ($800,000-1.2 million).
© Alexis Adler. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2014.

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (1960-1988)
Milk
paint on radiator ($300,000-500,000) © Alexis Adler. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2014.